'Falmouth stood up to the British'

Sunday

FALMOUTH — For two centuries, the tale of the HMS Nimrod's futile shelling of Falmouth in an attempt to steal its cannons has captured the imagination of visitors and townsfolk alike.

FALMOUTH — For two centuries, the tale of the HMS Nimrod's futile shelling of Falmouth in an attempt to steal its cannons has captured the imagination of visitors and townsfolk alike.

Houses that withstood the shelling became historic landmarks. Residents memorialized the event in art. Artifacts from the era are automatically associated with the day, despite — or perhaps thanks to — no evidence of a link.

The Nimrod shelling wasn't a pivotal battle in the War of 1812, nor did Falmouth residents manage to sink the British ship or prevent further raids in coastal towns. But the event lodged in the collective consciousness of generations of Falmouth residents for one simple reason: In the dead of winter, outgunned and unprepared, the hearty souls didn't stand down.

"Falmouth was one of the only places that fought back," said Mark Schmidt, executive director of the Falmouth Historical Society. "Falmouth stood up to the British."

As the Historical Society prepares to commemorate the bicentennial of the Jan. 28, 1814, attack, with a gala event Tuesday at the Coonamessett Inn, Schmidt said the spirit of resistance that Falmouth's forefathers showed has been the driving force behind the Nimrod's popularity in local lore.

The War of 1812 was the second war of independence from Britain, and it wasn't particularly popular in Massachusetts, he said. When President Thomas Jefferson approved the Embargo Act of 1807 that cut off trade ties with the United Kingdom and France, it set off protests in New England towns that depended on seafaring trade for their livelihoods.

Falmouth would have been one of those towns, Schmidt said. Despite the war's unpopularity, many Falmouth residents served in the war. The town also had its own cannons — including a few brass ones — so when the Nimrod came sailing up Buzzards Bay and demanded Falmouth's armaments or else, the town didn't fall over.

"This was a British Cruizer-class ship that's essentially going up and down the coast and terrorizing these villages," Schmidt said. "They're basically looking to do some extortion. ... The whole thing was we'll back off if you pay us off."

After evacuating its women and children, Falmouth withstood 24 hours of shelling and got its own shots in before the Nimrod moved on, later raiding Wareham in its quest for bounty.

"The British had their way in most other ports," said Alan Lunn, a Falmouth resident and history buff. "But Falmouth didn't take it sitting down."

Lunn, 85, has spent his lifetime building and repairing boats. His passion has extended into building model boats, a hobby he's enjoyed since he was a boy. In his Sippewissett Road home, many of his projects are on display, including his most recent achievement: a recreation of the Nimrod built to 1/48th the size of the actual 100½-foot ship.

Lunn said he built the model Nimrod about two years ago after spending a lifetime hearing the tale of the shelling. Since he finished it, it's been a popular attraction around town, and he's hoping to exhibit it at the Tuesday celebration held by the Falmouth Historical Society.

"It would have been a fast-moving ship," he said. "They made a formidable enemy."

For years, Falmouth's most visible memory of the Nimrod shelling was the 100 Dillingham Ave. restaurant that bore the ship's name. The eatery was cobbled together from several historic houses, including one with a hole that, perhaps apocryphally, was made by a Nimrod cannon and once stood on Shore Drive.

The restaurant shut down last year and imminent demolition was rumored. A group of historically minded residents banded together to form Save the Nimrod, a nonprofit group that hoped to raise enough money to buy and preserve the building.

George Hampson, the group's president, said he was prepared for a fight that would have rivaled the 1814 shelling. But after the building was sold to Falmouth developer Warren Dalton, Hampson found a receptive audience.

As it turned out, Dalton was open to saving as much of the historic bits of the building as possible, Hampson said.

"Right now, we're taking the attitude of working with the owner and ... not going against the grain," he said. "He's going to save as much as he can. We're so pleased he's working with us."

The Save the Nimrod group raised "several thousand dollars" to fund its quest to save the restaurant, Hampson said.

Right now that money is funding smaller preservation efforts, including photographing the building's interior, and it could be used for smaller projects in the renovated structure. Should it go unused, however, Hampson said the money will be returned to the donors.

As Falmouth enters its third century of using the Nimrod as its cultural touchstone of pride and resistance, Schmidt said the battle will continue to resonate despite its footnote status to the rest of the world.

"Clearly you're not going to find these battles in textbooks. It's hardly the Battle of New Orleans," he said, referencing the final major battle of the War of 1812. "It's not the second coming of Normandy — it's nothing of that scale. It's a 24-hour episode, but it's one in which we got this big, bad British ship that's having its way on the towns up and down the coast. The town was damaged, but they lived to fight another day."

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.